Day 1 - A New Adventure
And the
adventure would start mighty early. The
day before I had gotten some new roommates, 2 Irish girls. That night, the girls didn’t make it back to
the room, and had talked about going fishing at 6am the next day. Sure enough, 5:40am rolls around, and one of
the girls alarm is going off, super loud, locked inside her locker…
Instead of lying
there, suffering, I just got up and went down stairs to read. I ended up falling asleep, waking up with
just enough time to get my stuff packed, my big backpack stored at my hostel,
and get a little breakfast before my 8:30am ride picked me up.
Our group
consisted of 11 brave souls heading into the jungle, however the real trouble
was getting all eleven, plus a driver, into a tiny Land Cruiser. It was a tight squeeze, but quickly became
real friendly with my fellow travelers: 3 from the UK (London, Dublin, Scotland),
2 Germans, 4 Dutch, 1 Norwegian, and I rounded out the group as the lone
American. Everyone spoke really good
English, a nice change of pace.
Three hours
in the jeep, half of which was insane off-roading, had everyone feeling stiff
right before the hike. We all had lunch
together and were becoming fast friends.
Lunch was sandwiches, except they gave us tons of bread, very little
ham, and even less cheese. So more
accurately, lunch was bread.
The hike
today was only about 8kms, but it felt a lot further than that. It started pretty flat with a couple stream
crossings and with a great swimming hole where lots of little fish hungout in
the water right around you. Then the
trail turned uphill, and I got super sweaty, like through my shirt sweaty. We stopped for oranges and watermelon along
the way.
I was so
hungry I thought I’d die that night, dinner was amazing, piles of rice, chicken
in pineapple tropical sauce. And because
we were traveling with half girls, I got lots more to eat!
I was
absolutely exhausted and went to bed quite early while the ruckus group was
still drinking beer and building a pyramid.
Day 2 – The Heat & Hunger
Three
members of our group disappeared last night, they had to get up super early
this morning and hike all day, as they were doing the whole hike in 4 days, so
the 2 Germans and the Dutchman were gone.
Today was
another sweet day, a big climb in the morning, with a large decent in the
afternoon, and oranges and pineapples for snacks. We were all delighted by today’s swimming hole,
cooler water, but surrounded by warm sunny rocks, big open area to swim, with
several rocks of varying height to jump.
We also saw
the natives (Koguis), where they have their ceremonies and weddings, and one of
the huts they live in. It’s just weird
to think that there are people that still live off the land like this, no
technology, just cloth for clothing, rubber boots for shoes, the kids still run
around barefoot.
At the
ceremony place, a child walk right up to our group and we gave him candy, then
he ran off. It’s just crazy to image
being in their world, and slowly enter ours.
It sometimes is hard to say which way is better way of life… I paid
money to come out and experience this life, I’d never wanted to pay to go to
work.
We just a
huge delicious lunch at the end of our second day of hiking, soup (which at
first I was like, ’Soup?! Are you kidding? I’m starving!!’) which ended up
being incredibly filling and satisfying.
So much so that our entire group and the rest of the camp just passed
out for about an hour.
This trail
is pretty tough, but not in the traditional hiking sense. It is pretty steep, and we seem to always be
either climbing straight up or going straight down. For me though, the toughest part of this trip
(the whole trip really) is food. I just
feel so hungry all the time. For the
hike, it just makes it so you struggle towards the end of each day, and then
get a huge food coma after you eat. You
are only fed three times a day, so if you miss it or don’t each enough, tough,
and you go hungry. The heat is another
beast, the sun, heat, and humidity all combine in a sweltering combination. It just makes hiking that much tougher.
I’ve been
getting eaten to shit by the sand flies, the mosquitoes are manageable, but the
sand flies are way smaller and there are way more of them. I also found a tick on me today.
We had diner
again as a group, this time by candle light.
We learned about the local’s tradition of using crushed up snail shells
and coca leaves, mixed with saliva, to build a large circle around their
crushing device. When the boy is 17 he
starts, when he turns 18 he’s finished and takes a wife. I was again exhausted, and with no electricity,
it was again an early night.
Day 3 –
Finding a Groove
Ladies and
gentleman, this is what traveling is all about.
After just another incredible day hiking around the jungle, it’s now late
afternoon, just been fed a delicious pasta lunch, lounging in a hammock,
overlooking a pleasant river, that fills the air with a consistent relaxing
melody. It’s these moments that I’ll
always remember, cherish, and make life truly special.
As the days
wear on, we continue to get deeper into the jungle, more treacherous, and more
dangerous.
We crossed a
bridge supported by big cables, that had only been constructed and in use for 2
weeks – I believe that’s called a guinea pig.
We also crossed another bridge that appeared to have been constructed
that day.
I was
talking to a Dutch girl today, Sonne.
The guide was a little ways in front, and after he passed (but before
me) this huge snake launched out in front from my left across the trail, and
disappeared into the brush on the right.
It was crazy! It was mostly black with a red or orange stripe on
top. I couldn’t be 100% sure, but it
looked an awful lot like the one our guide warmed us about, in my broken Spanish
I understood – dangerous (peligrosa), don’t stop to take pictures, just move
along.
The rest of
the day was great, another nice swimming hole with super clean water.
My body is
getting used to the food, not nearly as hungry – breakfast of eggs, toast, and
fruit was very filling today. But the
bites are terrible, itchy, relentless… I can’t stop scratching them.
Finished up
the day playing asshole, then werewolves, which is basically mafia, had a nice
dinner, and then chilled out. It’s been nice the last few days to really get to
know the group.
Day 4 – The
Lost City
Today was
the lost city, but it didn’t start off that great. We got up at 6am for breakfast and got on the
road early.
I was told
that there were 5 stream crossings on the way up, so 10 total, so I just blew
into the first river crossing in my shoes.
As it turns out, that would be the first and only water crossing so I
had wet shoes all day. And my camera
battery died on the first photo opp of the day.
I had 2 other batteries with, but they were in my pack, back at camp,
blast!
The lost
city trail ends with a 300m climb up to 1200m, and with 1200 steps. After that we were eager to sit down at the
top, and have a history lesson –
The people
lived there from 500-1600 AD, but when the Spanish arrived at Santa Marta, killing
and enslaving the people, the tribe got scared and retreated higher into the
mountains. They went so high (4000m)
they eventually died, leaving their city and wealth untouched.
The city was
discovered in 1973, the first to find it gathered all the gold they could find
and took it back to town, talked of the treasure, and it brought out a ton of
thieves. They would ultimately destroy
80% of the original structures digging for gold. Also the homes were all build out of wood, so
the only remains today are the stones.
Eventually
the police stepped in, to stop the digging and destruction, but police corruption
allowed it to continue. One day, when
all the treasure had been unburied, all the police officers except the captain
went down for a swim in the river. The
captain took the opportunity to kill all the cops, thieves, and locals, and
stole all the treasure, disappearing forever.
Today, the
Koguis are the ancestors of the original Ciudad Perdida tribe. However, the ones living close to town are
beginning to use money and trade, which is started to ruin their culture.
Tours have
been coming since 1983. In 2000, a group
of 8 tourists were taken hostage by gorillas and demanded that a prisoner be
released. Three months later the prison
and hostages were released with no one being harmed. That is why today there is military atop the
ruins with large guns.
There used
to be cocaine production along the trail, it wasn’t officially part of the
hike, but all the guides knew about it, and tourists could pay a few extra
pesos and check it out. About 10 months
ago, the president of Colombia went on the tour and learned about the drug
production, and shut it down :(
After the history
lesson, we spent another hours at the top before heading down the mountain,
being careful not to fall and break something. Unfortunately there was a Slovakian couple
that was not so lucky, or the woman for that matter, as she fell on the way
down the stairs and broke her arm. She
had to wear a sling the rest of the way down the mountain, it did not look fun.
We stopped at
camp 3 for lunch, rice and sausage, and got some quality time with a hammock
while my socks and shoes were able to dry in the hot sun.
There was a
clear shift going on today, maybe the waking up early or the extra miles, but
we were all a bit quieter on the decent at the end of the day. At camp 2 we stopped for the night, I finally
had a shower, and then read until it was dark.
We got to have one last group dinner, with a side of sorrow, as it would
be the last big family dinner of the trip.
As the
candles were again beginning to burn low, everyone was tired but no one wanted
to leave the table, to say goodbye to that little part of the trip, and our
lives. We all exchanged emails and
agreed to meet up again soon, possibly for dinner or carnival next week. Then we retired for the evening.
Day 5 - The Finale
The day was
actually quite nice, we had to get up and eat breakfast for the first time
without the others, which was sad. The
hike itself was nice, but also long and full of downhill switchbacks on tired
legs and aching knees.
We didn’t
talk too much on the walk back, I was already thinking about the next few days
of the trip. I tried to stay in the
moment, but couldn’t.
We got snacks
back at camp one, before the huge decent to the end. The celebratory beers and Champaign were
mighty tasty, along with the fish and fried bananas.
Jesus (our
guide) was a funny guy, big fat belly (seemed strange for a guide whose job it
is to walk). He only spoke Spanish but
luckily Anna was nearly fluent and could translate everything. The best though was when he’d yell for Anna
to tell the group to ‘vamos’ or ‘desayuno’ words anyone traveling in South
America for more than a minute know by heart.
But when we
got back to town, Jesus’ appearance made a ton of sense, he was literally
chugging beers and double fisting. I
couldn’t decide if he was an alcoholic, or if in his little Colombian brain we
were really that annoying.
The worst
part came when we got back into the jeep, and perform the whole off-roading
fiasco all over again.
The last
interesting things I noticed – much of the driving takes place out in the
country, and I hadn’t noticed many (if any) gas stations along the way. But how silly of me, the dude holding up the
hose is actually a gas station, and he’ll siphon gas into your car, if the
price is right…
